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Chaotic equilibrium is the new normal. It reflects our minds’ trying to keep up with accelerating change, with little time to think. Our culture has become progressively more practical, materially oriented, and sceptical. Increasingly we find ourselves in a worldly culture, a money-based culture geared to the life of getting and spending, trying and succeeding, and reaching out to gather more and more.
The world does not need fixing. We do.
Today’s younger generations are understandably upset with the state of the world, and point to previous generations for its continued deterioration. With today's advanced communication systems, they are acutely aware of the failings of the highest institutions whose job it is to maintain order. They are alarmed, angered, and disillusioned by the apparent lack of accountability and integrity among world leaders, and have been living in crises no longer looming, but painfully present.
At an event in New Delhi on 18 October 2025, Karan Singh – at the age of 94 – took to the stage and addressed the young people in attendance. A distinguished politician, scholar of the Upanishads, and author of numerous works on Indian philosophy and culture, Singh has often been described as the best president India never had. Deeply philosophical on the one hand, and a spirited statesman on the other, he served as a parliamentarian for four decades before his retirement in 2019.
He began his remarks with a sober reflection on the state of the world.
“Many of the movements of our era have collapsed,” he said. The non-proliferation movement, he noted, had clearly failed in its aims. Instead of nuclear weapons being reduced, more and more were being produced, with factories that had once closed now reopening to manufacture them again.
The peace movement, he continued, also seemed to have collapsed. Wars were taking place across the world. As a result, humanity today finds itself in a moment of profound uncertainty:
“The world today is in turmoil. We find ourselves precariously poised between a disappearing past and an indeterminate future.”
While others seek transformation through activism, policy, or collective mobilisation, Singh gently redirects attention to the source from which all action flows: our inner state. Disorder outside, he tells us, mirrors disorder within. The crises of our time cannot be met by fear, agitation, or speed, but only by cultivating the inner coherence from which wise action emerges.
“I want to address the younger generation,” he said. “I speak especially to you. Everyone today is disoriented. But the question is: what should young people do?
“I know young people don’t like advice. You already get plenty of it. Still, I will give you some, whether you like it or not. My advice can be summed up in one word: build.”
Build the body through discipline and balance to meet the growing demands of the physical world. Build the mind through questioning to see clearly in the fog of misinformation. Build the emotions and train them in positive ways. Build inner spirituality through meditation and yoga so that actions arise from stillness rather than restlessness.
Few messages are more timeless. Yet the urgency felt today is unmistakable. Many people experience profound anxiety, loneliness, and disorientation. They witness institutions falter, public trust erode, and technology reshape the very texture of their lives. The AI discourse, fed by media hype and western Big Tech, has amplified an already frightening scenario, creating an ambient atmosphere of anxiety. Anxiety is not fear. It is diffuse, pervasive, atmospheric.
In trying to cope, many turn towards the very technologies and substances that deepen their distress. Young people seek direction, but much of the advice they receive feels outdated, emerging from the very mindsets that shaped the crises they have inherited.
Here Singh goes back to the wisdom of the Upanishads, not as an esoteric relic but as a living resource. The teachings of dhyāna (meditation), viveka (discernment), samatva (equanimity) and dharma (right action) offer a framework for navigating contemporary challenges that overwhelm both intellect and beliefs. The emphasis on the inner life is a necessary reorientation. What makes his guidance especially resonant is its universality. It does not belong to one culture or nation, nor does it prescribe faith.
The world may not need fixing, Singh suggests, as much as we need renewing, which begins with renewal within. To anyone asking how the world can change, his answer is disarmingly simple: start by building yourself – inner steadiness is the first step towards outer change.
“I believe, finally, that a divine destiny pervades the cosmos, a destiny not distant and remote but one in which, in some mysterious way, each one of us is actively involved,” he says. “I believe that the most effective means of fulfilling that destiny is a combination of active outer involvement in furthering human welfare, and intense inner striving to reach the goal of spiritual realisation.”
Singh exhorts us: “Do not skim across the surface of life. Look within, even for five minutes a day. When you build body, mind, emotion and spirit, only then can you contribute to building a new world. Otherwise, the world will continue on the path of ruin.”
This essay draws on a talk by Karan Singh at Celebrating Diversity, Inspiring Peace, a gathering held in New Delhi on 18 October 2025 that brought together students, educators and spiritual thinkers to explore inner development, ethical responsibility and youth leadership in a time of ecological and social uncertainty.
